Selection of high-quality seeds is an important technique in agriculture. Criteria for high-quality seeds include external and internal factors. With regard to a morphological aspect, high-quality seeds are those that must be free of contamination, deformation, and discoloration. In addition, they should be large and heavy and have a fresh flavor characteristic of themselves. As to the internal factors, they include genetic homogeneity, strong germinative power, and lack of intrinsic diseases.
Most of the currently distributed seeds in South Korea come from foreign countries, mainly South-East Asia. After being imported, seeds are distributed to domestic farmers or exported to third countries. Such seed gathering from abroad are advantageous in terms of production cost, seed gathering environment, and quality, but is always associated with the problem of the inflow of diseases and insect pests unfamiliar in the domestic environment. In South Korea, clearance permission of seeds to be exported or imported is determined not by separate culturing, but by inspection at the scene or laboratory examination. The quantity of seeds which cannot pass the customs because of the detection of intrinsic diseases increases every year. Such inspection of intrinsic diseases is conducted on some of the subject seeds, i.e., a trace number of the subject seeds, due to problems associated with time, labor, and cost.
However, since pathogens are, for the most part, present at a very low density in seeds, inspection must be made on as many seed samples as possible. Practically, it is impossible to make a full inspection with conventional methods due to complex procedure, time, labor, and cost. Thus, there is a need for a novel selection method.
After seeds that are of quality in appearance are gathered for importation, they are examined for intrinsic diseases by quarantine inspection in most countries of the world. In addition, seed companies and agricultural offices select high-quality seeds before seed distribution.
Currently, the selection of high-quality seeds resorts mostly to the naked eye. Also typically used are selection techniques include selection by specific gravity using brine assortment, by weight using an electric fan, and by volume using sieves. In addition, seeds are sowed in soil or media to examine the presence of foreign seeds, germinative power, and intrinsic diseases. As such, conventional selection methods suffer from the disadvantage of being poor in accuracy or requiring extensive time and labor because they are directed toward appearance properties or seed sowing.
Turning to intrinsic diseases of seeds, high-quality seeds are difficult to select with conventional methods. Their inspection spectrum is limited to some pathogenic fungi and viruses. In addition, expensive inspection instrument, extensive labor, much expense, and skilled experts are often beyond the capacity of small and medium-sized companies and offices that are not financially supported.